The Community Newspaper for the Crown Point Neighbourhood

Going on holiday sounds wonderful. The idea of a trip to some magical place, the prospect of not just a change of place but a change of pace, and perhaps the chance to live in a different way, even for a short period of time, are all part of what attracts us to travel. However, making a trip a reality is sometimes impossible. Perhaps the financial burden of a trip is beyond our means or perhaps we can’t find a travelling partner and don’t have the courage to go it alone.

The possibility of a holiday is affected by the demands of work. If you have a demanding position, you may find that taking time off is hard to arrange. However, it is equally (or more) difficult to take a holiday when your employment is precarious. You may work from contract to contract, have been recently hired and thus feel uncertain about the wisdom of taking time off, or just not have the money to go away.

One of the realities of contract work, especially if you do short-term contracts, is the feeling that you always have to be ready to say “yes” to work. This can lead to periods of overwork which alternate with periods of no work (and the attendant anxiety of whether you will ever work again). This pattern can make the idea of a holiday seem impossible.

We all need time off work. Whether you are planning a long holiday or a day away, taking time off takes discipline. It isn’t only the discipline required to save up the money you need for your holiday. It is hard to avoid checking calls and messages, hard not to pick up the phone when it rings. It is hard to say to potential employers that you won’t be available for a period of time.

If you are only able to take short periods of time off, block them off as if they were work. Prepare a message that lets potential employers know how long you will be unavailable and when you will be able to return calls. Start small: a day at a time may be all you can afford, economically and psychologically. If you know that there are predictable slack periods in your line of work, try to take time off then. At least you won’t be pacing around the house waiting for calls!

It helps to plan an activity for your vacation day (or days). This gives your day some structure and prevents you from just hanging around the house thinking about things that need doing, wondering what to do with your day, or wondering whether you have any messages. Checking for messages, even if you don’t return calls, means that you are focussed on work, rather than on your time off.

Planning and research can add to the pleasure of a holiday. Whatever you plan, whether it’s a day or a month, a free neighbourhood activity or an elaborate expedition, when the time comes, focus on your holiday and enjoy it.

The Point is a community-driven volunteer effort supported through advertising. See the links on the left to learn more.

For many Hamiltonians one of their best childhood memories is playing on the old train in Gage Park. For years the locomotive sat neglected and unwanted but now it’s on display in restored condition at the Westfield Heritage Village in Rockton.

In June of 1954 the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo (TH&B) Railway gave the City of Hamilton an old steam locomotive to be used as a museum piece. For more than a year the Parks Board debated where locomotive 103 should be placed but eventually they agreed on a spot at the south end of Gage Park just east of the Roselawn Lawn Bowling Club.

In its working days the train, which was built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in 1910, travelled between Hamilton, Welland, and Montrose hauling steel and other goods to points on the New York Central and Canadian Pacific lines. In its 44 years on the job the train had no accidents and maintained a fine safety record.

In early October 1956 the train was moved across Lawrence Road and into Gage Park using two sections of temporary track. On October 18, 1956 at a formal ceremony the locomotive was officially handed over to the City. Present at the ceremony were Mayor Lloyd D. Jackson and Fire Chief Reg Swanborough who once worked aboard the train as a stoker.

At the ceremony TH&B General Manager Percy Hankinson proclaimed, “We give her to the citizens of Hamilton and to their children who have for so many years watched our trains from this very spot and to the generations of Hamiltonians yet unborn.” The train would remain in the great park for the next 20 years.

By 1976 the train that was loved by so many children was in a state of disrepair having suffered the effects of weather and vandalism. In September of the same year it was decided to transport the old iron horse to the Wentworth Pioneer Village, now known as the Westfield Heritage Village.

On January 16, 1977 the two pieces were loaded onto trailers and hauled up the Claremont access on route to its new home. The trip up the access alone took over two hours.

In May of that year a ceremony was held at the Pioneer Village to celebrate the new addition. Herb March, an 87-year-old former engineer on the 103, and Ancaster Mayor Ann Sloat each took turns driving in the ceremonial spike.

In 1987 the train was in the news again when the Wentworth Pioneer Village fell on hard times and closed. A group of railway enthusiasts suggested the train should be moved to the Museum of Steam and Technology on Woodward Avenue. Working every Sunday to prepare the train for transport, the group put more than 1500 hours into the project.

Plans to move the train came to a halt when Alderman Bill McCulloch opposed the move due to its high cost. The disheartened railway group ceased their work and one member wrote in The Spectator, “Goodbye Engine 103, may you rust in peace.”

In 1997 a group led by Charles Doubrough began restoring the 103 as a millennium project. The group found extensive damage and it wasn’t until 2005 that the project was completed. Now on display in restored condition inside the village, the train is being enjoyed by a new generation of area children.

When travelling as pedestrians, we rely on sight and sound. Our brain reacts, and we adjust our behavior as needed in order to avoid hazards. Crossing the street, for example, is a complicated undertaking involving perception, judgment, and reaction time.

Experienced pedestrians have learned how to decide if a car coming toward them will be able to stop, or will be blowing through the stop sign. It gets trickier to determine this from a longer distance, when a vehicle is really speeding, because the speed of a fast-approaching vehicle is difficult to judge when it is farther away. This is why we have speed limits, and why pedestrians are not allowed on freeways.

Consider how an airplane appears to you, when you look up and observe it flying. It will seem to be travelling more slowly than any cars driving past your house. Our brain judges speed according to the time it takes an object to cross our field of vision. The farther away the object, the longer it takes to cross our visual field, even if it is travelling at 1,000 km/hour. This isn’t a problem with airplanes because we aren’t normally at risk of being hit by a plane as we walk across an intersection.

Where this trick of perception can get us into real trouble, however, is on railway tracks. Trains are big—they can weigh tens of thousands of tons—and can’t stop quickly. According to the Operation Lifesaver Canada website, the average freight train travelling 100 km/h needs about two kilometres (roughly 18 football fields) to stop.

The distances trains cover, combined with the speed at which they travel, can make trains look as if they are approaching more slowly than they actually are. This combination of distance, speed, and bulk can be deadly if you are crossing the tracks illegally. By the time you’ve seen that the train is too close, it’s too late for you to move away. By the time the engineer sees you, it’s too late to avoid hitting you even after braking.

The stakes are so high that it is illegal to cross train tracks anywhere but at designated crossings. “But I can hear the train coming,” you say. Well, no, not necessarily—because of the way we perceive sound. To begin with, modern trains are very quiet, with tracks designed to be as frictionless as possible. On top of that, what you hear of a train’s approach depends on your position relative to it. High school physics students know this is called the Doppler Effect: sound waves change depending on how far away the sound-creating object is from the person hearing it.

In fact, the Doppler effect was demonstrated on train tracks in 1845. A brass band was pulled in an open cart behind a train, and a change in instrument pitch was observed, even though the same note was being played. You can conduct an experiment of your own this summer, if you’re a GO train user. On the platform as the train approaches notice how close the train is when you actually hear it—you’ll be surprised. If you were walking along tracks and a train was approaching from behind, odds are you wouldn’t know until it was on top of you, even without earbuds in.

From January to May of 2018 alone, according to Transportation Safety Board of Canada numbers cited on the Operation Lifesaver website, there have already been 19 fatalities and 31 serious injuries on railway tracks. We know there was a serious injury recently, just west of Gage Park. When I was a teenager, my cousin’s boyfriend lost his life trespassing on tracks to take a shortcut. I wonder how many of us are six degrees of separation from someone killed or hurt by a train.

Operation Lifesaver (www.operationlifesaver.ca) has an excellent set of resources on railway safety, including suggestions on how to raise the topic with our children, if we have them. Among their online material is a hair-raising virtual reality demonstration: just search “I didn’t hear a train” on YouTube.

Stick to safe pedestrian routes and designated railway crossings. Don’t trespass on railway property. Just because Johnny Cash said he heard that train a comin’ doesn’t mean you will. Don’t risk it.

The “Crown Point Gallery” art collection has increased again with the acquisition and installation of a mural on the Pipeline Trail. Located on a freshly painted shed just east of Fairfield Avenue, the mural is an enlarged reproduction of Leonard Hutchinson’s (1896-1980) woodblock print Webster’s Falls. The dynamic black and white relief jumps out from a distance at any passerby. Atmospherically, the sun acts as a natural spotlight for the image and the nearby birds add to the experience, as if you are standing right there viewing the rushing waters.

The group behind the installation is the Red Tree Collective of artists. Their aim “…is to work in interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations with artist and/or community members.” For more information, visit http://www.redtreecollective.ca. According to collective member Ingrid Mayrhofer, the group partnered with Elizabeth Seidl from the Pipeline Trail Committee and she assisted with selecting an image and a suitable site.

Leonard Hutchinson’s artwork was chosen for a number of reasons. First, without going into extensive biographical detail, Hutchinson is considered one of the best woodblock printmakers in Canada during the mid-twentieth century. His home was Hamilton and he was one of a few artists who emotionally and simplistically depicted rural Ontario, the uncomfortable reality of Hamilton life during the Great Depression, and everyday workers’ portraits—from the blacksmith to the tobacco field worker. Second, Mayrhofer points out that one of the founding members of the Red Tree Collective is his daughter Lynn Hutchinson; gaining permission to use the work was one less hurdle in such a project. And third, the image of Webster’s Falls, though far west of the mural’s location, resonates with the idea of water flowing along the Pipeline Trail.

Once the imagery was secured, the last part of the project was to find an appropriate context and location. Mayrhofer states that once the garage at Fairfield Avenue had been identified as their choice location, “It did not take long at all to convince owners Bethany Osborne and Ed Miedma to host our mural trailhead.” Being happy to participate, Miedma even went ahead and put on a fresh coat of neutral grey-blue paint. He also enhanced the foot of the shed with a raised garden box.

Naturally close to the art installation, Osborne has overheard community members responding to the new mural. “I have seen mothers explain the art to their children in strollers. Groups of various people just stand in front, looking and enjoying—even stopping and chatting in front of it. It’s only been a week, but I think its presence has already started to change the flow of activity on the trail.”

Hutchinson’s work is not the first art addition to the Pipeline Trail. One block east, near Strathearne, is another cooperative project headed by the Red Tree Collective: a garden box boasting artistic expression of black and white etchings similar to his, but with a more organic and abstract subject matter. Within the next block east of Hutchinson’s artwork, the group aims to continue to work with the Pipeline Committee on further art initiatives. One may even say that the Pipeline Trail is beginning to exemplify a well-curated exhibition, open to the elements.

The Point is a community-driven volunteer effort supported through advertising. See the links on the left to learn more.

The scenic Red Hill Valley was forever altered when the Red Hill Expressway was completed in 2007. Hamilton’s most contentious infrastructure project prior to the LRT, the construction of the $245 million expressway divided residents and city council and involved a lengthy lawsuit against the federal government. Despite the loss of much of the woodland, a trail which follows the Red Hill Creek remains. Beginning at the Niagara Escarpment, the Red Hill Valley Recreational Trail runs northeast through the valley until it intersects the Waterfront Trail near Van Wagners Beach Rd.

The trail is approximately 10.5 km long and includes a variety of surfaces and grades. Despite being adjacent to the parkway, the trail passes through several quiet forested areas, some of which feature vibrant cherry blossom trees. There is also an accessible 1.1 km section with a tar-and-chip surface which can be reached through the King’s Forest Golf Course. This walkable area is frequented by family hikers and dog walkers.

My typical path involves biking from the house to the trail entrance on Queenston Road. The trail north of Queenston towards the waterfront is unpaved, and features some moderately steep hills, but is not an especially challenging ride. After 30-40 minutes, riders will reach the highly visible red pedestrian bridge which crosses the QEW. From here it’s a short trip to the Waterfront Trail, which I would usually take to Hutch’s on the Beach for a moose tracks-filled waffle cone. Hutch’s has been a fixture on the beach strip for over 70 years, with it’s 1950’s dining experience and famous fish and chips drawing in visitors from across the city year-round. Other notable attractions in this area include the more upscale Greek restaurant, Baranga’s on the Beach, and the amusement park of Adventure Village. If you wish to ride farther, the Waterfront Trail runs east to Confederation Park and northwest all the way to Burlington’s Spencer Smith Park.

On the other hand, riders who set off south on the Red Hill will eventually reach Albion Falls. One of the best waterfalls in the region, Albion has been featured in numerous news articles and blogs across the GTHA. Unfortunately, this popularity has proven to be its undoing. After several deaths and injuries from people walking into or along the top of the falls, fences were put up and police stationed to ticket trespassers. Although the sight is still well worth visiting, riders should be prepared for heavy foot traffic by the falls for most of the day.

Most Crown Point and Delta residents live within a 15-minute ride of the trail, with easy access via Queenston Rd. or Barton St. There are parking lots by Lawrence Rd. and King’s Forest, while street parking is available by numerous other trail entrances. Readers interested in learning more about the trail or who wish to support the Ontario Trails Council can visit http://www.ontariotrails.on.ca/trails/view/red-hill-valley-recreational-trail.

The Point is a community-driven volunteer effort supported through advertising. See the links on the left to learn more.

Packing a lunch for school or work is an everyday routine for thousands of Crown Point residents. Plastic wraps or bags for sandwiches are staple ingredients in lunches. But plastic becomes a huge problem once it is tossed away. It ends up in landfills, breaks down into tiny pieces, and enters into the food chain and water tables. Thinking about it could spoil your appetite. Luckily two women, one who happens to live in Crown Point, have a solution.

Robyn Menzies and Sarah Shearing are two moms and long-time friends. They met while living in Toronto and “bonded over their love of family life, baby wearing and healthy living.” After Sarah moved to Crown Point their friendship remained strong. “We always knew we would find a way to collaborate together and just needed the right project,” Sarah explained by email. That project turned out to be Earthology Food Wraps. The two women produce food wraps that are reusable, washable and, when they’re finally tattered and torn, compostable.

Describing themselves as environmentalists committed to “reducing toxins, waste, and protecting the planet,” Sarah explained that the project began when their children were set to begin school. “We started brainstorming ways to transition our home habits into our kids’ lunch boxes,” she said. “Nothing we saw combined both the all-organic, toxin-free materials with the beauty we wanted to see. Being green doesn’t need to be boring or difficult…so we decided to make our own.”

Thus began “a long and arduous journey” of sourcing materials that were organic and naturally produced. “It wasn’t easy, but with a little research a lot of patience and a little alchemy, we finally did it,” Sarah exclaimed. “We are proud to be the first North American makers of a vegan-friendly, 100 per cent plant-based food wrap.”

The market for Earthology Food Wraps is anyone who packs a lunch and who wants to reduce their consumption of single-use plastic materials. They also target those looking to “add a little flair to their kitchens or who are looking for a unique and beautiful gift.”

Sarah explained that while beeswax food wraps are not uncommon in other parts of the world, they are new to North America, “… so a lot of what we do is education.” She added, “Getting our product out there and demonstrating how amazing and easy it is, that’s our biggest challenge.”

Sarah said they both work hard to maintain the quality of their product while keeping prices low enough to entice people to give them a try. For anyone who would like to try Earthology Food Wraps in their kitchen and lunches, they can be purchased at Simply Zen on Ottawa Street near Cannon or ordered directly online at http://www.earthologywraps.com.

The Point is a community-driven volunteer effort supported through advertising. See the links on the left to learn more.

Lately, I have been on the hunt for things to do with our nine-year-old daughter that won’t bust the budget so I thought I’d share my experience of enjoying a staycation while being mindful of costs. Our recent trip to the beach in Port Dover was a fun and inexpensive day out for my daughter, her friend, and myself. Port Dover is about an hour from Crown Point—close enough to make it a half- or full-day excursion yet far enough to get the feeling of a fun road-trip experience.Don’t get me wrong—Port Dover isn’t necessarily a cheap place to visit. It’s a tourist spot where a lot of money can be spent if you allow it. There are lots of wonderful shops, places to eat, and touristy things to do. If it’s in your budget, then I would definitely consider adding on the other fun things Port Dover has to offer, but it’s not required to still enjoy your time there.For our trip, we headed out super early in the morning, about 6:30 a.m. Crazy I know to most of you, but as someone who doesn’t love the heat or crowds, it meant we got to the beach before it was really hot and busy. It was still nice enough for the kids to play in the sand and the water, and I got to enjoy some relaxing time. You definitely don’t need to go this early. If you like the heat and crowds, then any time of the day would be just fine.To avoid the need to buy food while we were there, I took a cooler bag full of fruit, sandwiches, chips, granola bars, and water. It did the trick and I came back with leftover food. I didn’t buy anything special for this trip; I just used what we already had at home. After a few hours of swimming and playing, the kids were ready to go and looking for some ice cream. We could have easily bought some in Port Dover, but I decided to take them to Hewitt’s Dairy Bar on Highway 6 in Hagersville on our way back. Other than perhaps gas, this was the biggest expense of the day, about $15. Pretty good I’d say for a day trip. Speaking of gas, it hasn’t been cheap lately, so on our way home I stopped near Caledonia on the Six Nations Reserve and filled up with gas. This saved me a lot of money as well.I know there are lots of other ideas all around us—we just need to look for them. My mission now is to see how much fun we can have while spending as little money as possible.

Have a great summer!

The Point is a community-driven volunteer effort supported through advertising. See the links on the left to learn more.